Lot Essay
This cabinet is typical of pieces produced in Vizagapatam, on the northern end of the Coromandel Coast, during the second half of the 18th century. The foliate motifs, inspired by Coromandel chintzes and Oriental designs, together with architectural landscapes, executed in engraved ivory highlighted with black lac are characteristic of work produced in this center. An active port, the Dutch East India Company patronised and trained Indian carpenters who produced goods based on European designs for export to Madras and Calcutta (A.K.H. Jaffer, 'The Furniture Trade in Early Colonial India', Oriental Art, vol. XLI, no. I, Spring 1995, 12-13).